"Two ships..." Jones Appeased, finally!

**ForresterModern** · 20th June 10, 05:46 AM

Last December I relayed a sad story of bad luck and bad timing:

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...w-jones-55840/

So I will only summarize the story and tell you its final satisfying outcome.

Early May [B]2009[B] I ordered a kilt from Tartanweb, an 8yd Heavyweight "All Tartans" Machine sewn in what was a special weave tartan, Ancient Red Douglas, a lesser known branch of the Douglas clan historically. The wait was expected to be prolonged because of the special weave so I waited patiently for over 7 months before writing the company about the order status. Tartanweb is notorious for it poor communications with its customers, but I was able to get through, only to find out that my tartan had been woven in July and sewn up into a kilt in late July and shipped to me in August, last year. Unfortunately it never arrived at my house, no notices were left, and the delivery company supposedly returned it to Tartanweb, although they never got it back. Alas, it was lost in the ethers somewhere.

Tartanweb's rep, JP MacDougall, said they would make it right, re-ordering the special weave, upgrading my kilt build to a handsewn tank, and expediting its delivery, although that would again take some months due to the special weave as they had no control over the weaver's schedule. A few weeks ago I wrote to check up on the status only to learn from JP that the kilt had been shipped the week earlier. Great----wait, OH NO! The delivery was expected to occur ONE DAY after I left for a two week business trip to France. Could it be that another delivery gaff was about to occur? ParcelForce uses USPS to complete the US end of their deliveries, and my wife had already put a hold on our mails, so we should have been good. Except that our neighbor, watching the house, notified us by email that our mail continued to be delivered anyway while we were gone, and....no package. Upon return, we discovered two notices in with the letters and magazines, one for attempted delivery, and another, three days later stating FINAL DELIVERY NOTICE and stating that the item was being returned to sender. I had to wait from Saturday night til midday Monday to find out whether it had happened again and....

IT HAD NOT! The package was at the post office, and so far all was well. Now I had the final 6 hour Jones waiting until I got home from work, then another two hour "family time" jones imposed by my wife, before I could open the package and behold the long lost kilt, 13 and a half months after it was originally ordered. Review and pictures below.

As stated this is Tartanweb's 8 yard heavyweight wool 16oz kilt, handsewn, in custom woven Ancient Red Douglas by DC Dalgleish. Close inspection of the stitching shows the subtle irregularity of stitch placement (very subtle) consistent with a handsewn kilt, but in all other ways this kilt is very well made. Pleated to sett, all stripes align well, and the fit was spot on. Good quality hardware, excellent fit and finish. When I measured it out at 44 repeats of the 6.5 inch sett size it adds up to a whopping 7.94 yards of fabric (I presume they ordered 8 meters of single width woven as they included a 6 yard by 2 inch wide remnant). 29 pleats, each 3 inches or a little more in depth, plus one reverse pleat. The only issue, which is minor, is that there is a small hitch in the tartan where the final stitch making up the lower edge of the fell is on each pleat, something that seems to be working its way out a bit after the first wearing, and which may disappear with additional wear. The promised pictures:

The last is a computer generated version of this tartan from Scotweb's site, to show just exactly how close the actual tartan came to the only thing I had to go by when ordering this kilt, as this is a rarely woven tartan, not available in swatches in advance of the weave. Actually, when I was looking to order either tartan or kilt in this tartan, several vendors actually told me there was no such tartan or pattern thread count available. We proved them wrong.

The kilt goes well with several different varieties of my hose, including the shown House of Cheviot Bowmores (pardon the sock sag---end of the day pictures and I didn't notice it).

I am very pleased with this kilt and tartan in particular, and would not hesitate to use Tartanweb in the future for similar orders, particulalry as the price for their special weave tartans is the same as for most commercially available one's in their "all tartans" categories. The handsewn bonus was a nice upgrade for the mishaps, and is noticeably better built compared to a couple machine sewns I have from them, but not really that much different overall in general quality. Thanks Tartanweb, and thanks to JP MacDougall for getting things figured out and the deal finished.

jeff

**English Bloke** · 20th June 10, 06:21 AM

Quite a wait there Jeff but glad it sorted out in the end. I have a couple of Tartanweb kilts too and they are first class in my opinion. Lovely tartan you've got as well...

**Inchessi** · 20th June 10, 07:54 AM

Stunning, and the sock really set it off. Again, where is the "Envy" emoticon?

**denmcdough** · 20th June 10, 08:03 AM

Jeff, I'm sure you're a happy man, now, considering the long wait. It looks awesome on you.

**artificer** · 20th June 10, 08:25 AM

Beautiful kilt with a great story!

It starts well, builds us up, strings us along, breaks our hearts, hope is restored- or is it? Then, just before the end a seemingly insurmountable sadness... Only for complete resolution in a very positive way.

Nearly a Greek tragedy, minus the tragic ending

Seriously, that is a beautiful kilt, and I'm so happy for you it wasn't returned a second time.